The prices of goods leaving Britain's factories fell back again last month thanks to tumbling crude oil prices.
According to The Office for National Statistics, reported output prices fell 0.1 per cent on the month to stand 0.6 per cent lower than a year earlier, the biggest annual fall since comparable records began in 1958.
Excluding volatile elements such as petroleum prices, so-called core output prices were unchanged from September and from a year earlier, showing the continued absence of factory gate inflation in Britain.
Analysts said benign inflation could pave the way for further interest rate cuts.
"The data confirms the deflationary pressures building up in the economy, with benign pipeline pressures likely to flow into the retail price index in the coming year," Mr Richard Iley, an economist at ABN AMRO bank in London, said.
"The inflationary outlook would have induced last week's greater-than-expected half-point rate cut," he said.
The output prices data were broadly in line with market expectations and so markets showed little reaction. The FTSE 100 index of leading shares remained around 35 points down on the day, and the pound hovered around $1.458.